the proper name for this dish (on the right) is cocido a la madrilena. but as far as we could tell it's a pretty flash boil up... no, make that a pretty flash, delicious, boil up.
you start with the soup - in the tureen at the right of the picture, which was chicken-y and with tiny pasta bits in it.
then we got the plate of chickpeas and assorted veges (to the back of the table, towards me) including carrot, spuds and savoy cabbage.
finally, the plate of meat - on Geoff's side of the table - which included chicken, black pudding, brisket and pork belly, oh, and a wee bit of marrow and a couple of bits of chorizo.
well, the pork belly (yes, mostly fat) was a revelation. to me, it didn't have the cloying porky taste i associate with, well, pork. it was delicious... the whole thing seemed to be made with love.
the staff were also fabulous - and gave us complimentary liqueurs and cake afterwards - which almost led to a mr creosote incident, but we coped.
you can see from the picture that the walls were elaborately tiled and decorated with slightly pornographic illustrations. all in all it added up - along with the bottle of rioja - to an extremely decadent and satisfying lunch and a great way to end our time in madrid.
today we came to Leon, via Segovia and its amazing aqueduct (everything is starting to sound like a circus act), which has become my second favourite place after Granada. Leon is fantastic and the cathedral really does have windows worth visiting.
we also saw pilgrims and pilgrim signs all over the place as Leon is one of the stops on the camino de santiago. tomorrow we expect even more of this as we are off to Santiago de Compostela. it's very gratifying to discover places that are as amazing as you hoped they'd be.
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